- Capitalism and Alternatives -

The Zapatista Position...

: Has anyone else noticed the parralels between the KLA and the pre-capitalist element sandanistas?--

No - but here's the view from the current Zapatistas

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Zapatista Army of National Liberation

Mexico June of 1999

To the peoples in struggle against the war:To Social Europe:To the men and women who are saying "No!":

Brothers and Sisters:

Greetings to all from the zapatistas of Mexico. All over the world different mobilizations and activities are being carried out at this time against the war that money has sown in the heart of Europe: the war in Kosovo.

In this war, the great Power has set itself to making all of us takepart: either we support Milosevic's "ethnic cleansing" war or wesupport NATO's "humanitarian" war.

This is the great alchemy of money, to offer us the option ofchoosing between two wars, not between peace and war.

On the shelves of the globalized market, the Powers are offeringhumanit only different versions of the same war: they come in allcolors, flavors, sizes and shapes. They are for all tastes and allpocket books. There is only one thing that makes them the same, theresults. Always destruction, always anguish, always death. Anddeath, anguish and destruction are always for the other, for thedifferent, for that which is unnecessary, for that which is in theway, for that which is below.

And, even within the mercantile logic of the merchants of death,neo-liberalism wants to offer us a fraud: the war that is supposedlygoing to avoid more deaths, has done nothing but multiply them; thewar that should be holding back the possibility of the conflictexpanding to other regions, has assured that the conflagration willnow spread beyond its original geographical limit; , the "intelligent"war has done nothing but demonstrate the great destructive capacityof stupidity; the war of "good faith" has re-defined human life: itsloss is now counted as "collateral damage."

It is a lie.

It is not true that we have to take part in this lethal market.

It is not true that there are only options between different kinds ofwar.

It is not true that we must take part on the side of one or anotherstupidity.

It is not true that we must renounce intelligence and humanity.

Nothing can legitimize Milosevic's ethnic war.

Nothing can legitimize NATO's "humanitarian" war.

The trap is there, but there are more and more who are refusing tofall into it and who are saying "No!" to the war in the Balkans.

In Kosovo, it is not just the existence and resistance of SocialEurope that is at stake in the face of the Europe of Money; at stakeis not just accepting or not the de facto power of the new globalpolice, the new clothing with which the Pentagon is dressing theirtroops.

Also at stake is the possibility of recognizing the other, thedifferent, in a way that he is not dead, imprisoned, humiliated,subjugated, persecuted, forgotten.

We will not fall into the trap, we will not allow the loss ofhumanity to pass into history in the category of "collateral damages,"and to allow cynicism and conformity to be the triumphant generals ofthe European war.

Despite all the power of money, despite all the arms, despite allthe arbitrary acts, despite all the attempts at hegemony andhomogenization, despite all the traps, we still have the right to say"NO!"

And that is what we raise today. A world-wide "NO!" to the lie thatfeigns truths in the skies and the grounds of Kosovo. NO to thedestruction of the different.

NO to the death of intelligence. NO to cynicism. NO toindifference. NO to having to choose between criminals who are moreor less bloodthirsty, more or less perverse, more or less powerful.

If we do not say "NO!" to Kosovo today, tomorrow we will be saying"YES!" to the horrors that money is now concocting all over the world.

Another, different world is possible than this violent supermarketthat neo-liberalism is selling us. Another world is possible, wherethe option is between war and peace, between memory and forgetting,between hope and resignation, between the gray and the rainbow. Aworld where many worlds fit is possible. It is possible for animperfect "Yes!', unfinished and incomplete, to be born from a "NO!",a "Yes!" that gives humanity back the hope of rebuilding, every day,the complex bridge that joins thought and feeling.